Another path for Remus lupin

The stolen Cupcakes

Alex was blabbering on about the orphanage and it's rules, but all the words went in one ear and out the other. Remus's mind was somewhere else, in fact, he was sacred. Even though he had escaped the hideout before, the thought of coming back there scared him.

But, I have to do that to free Charlotte, Remus scolded himself

"Oi!" Alex said, making Remus lose his train of thought, "You alive?"

"Oh-, what? Oh yeah, yeah, I'm alive,"

"Good," Alex said. Suddenly, the set of doors swung open and all the boy's heads whipped towards the doors. To Remus's surprise, a boy who looked about sixteen, walked through the doors, holding something, that was covered in a green plastic bag, tightly to his chest. He flicked his brunette hair out of his face as he gently put the plastic bag on the floor. He lifted his head, and his brown eyes skimmed the room,

"Why are you all looking at me?" he asked, his tone said that this wasn't the first time this had happened.

"What did you steal now, Will?" a boy from the back of the room asked. Will grinned,

"You'll have to see," he said as he took the thing out the plastic bag. Immediately, all the boys went closer to Will, Remus only did so because he was curious and because Alex was going.

Will pulled out a packet full of six cupcakes. They were chocolate and Remus wanted to sink his teeth into them so badly.

"I stole them from Stinky Sally," Will declared as he opened the packaging,

Remus heard a scoff from somewhere in the crowd, "You can't do that! You'll get in trouble!"

Everyone turned to look at the person who owned the voice. Remus saw a chubby boy who looked about Remus's age. He could tell from just looking at him that this dude was a pompous brat.

Will shrugged his shoulders, "Well, what did you think I would do, Greg? While we've been eating that rat food, Stinky Sally has been stuffing her mouth with cupcakes! The hog,"

Greg rolled his eyes before lifting his head up high in the air and strutting outside the room, slamming the doors behind him,

"God, he's annoying," Alex muttered under his breath and even though Remus barley knew Greg, he silently agreed with him,

Will took a cupcake out of the packet and took a huge chunk out of the cake and chewed it dramatically, while all the boys stared at the cupcakes hungrily,

"Can I have one?" Alex asked Will. Before Remus could say Are you stupid? He ain't gonna share a cupcake like that!, Will turned to look at them both. Without acknowledging Alex's question, he pointed at Remus and smirked,

"Hey newbie,"

Remus should have said, Hey or Hello or Don't call me a newbie you idiot, instead he said,

"I thought this orphanage was for young boys and girls?"

Will's smirk into a scowl, "Do you know how bloody hard it is to get adopted in here? I've been here for eleven year and no one's been interested in adopting me-" he then said a few words that caused the younger kids in the room to gasp,

"Geez man, I was just asking a question," Remus said quickly and Will stopped ranting and continued eating his cupcakes while everyone else went back to whatever they were doing. Remus and Alex went back to the bed,

"He didn't even answer my question!" Alex told Remus as he threw himself back onto the bed,

Remus was silent for a bit, "Why doesn't anyone want to adopt him? Is he like, really bad or something-"

"Nah," Alex interrupted, "No one's wants to adopt an older kid, they mostly want the younger ones, which is why you'll see a lot of toddlers come and go,"

Remus was silent for a while, while Alex blabbed on about who knows what. In a strange way, he felt sorry for him. Remus tried to imagine what it was like to live in this place for more than half of your life, watching adults come in and feeling hopeful about getting adopted, before realizing that no one wants you.

"Oi," Alex said to Remus, "You alive?"

"Yeah," Remus said quickly, before trying to listen to Alex's rants.

*****

For the rest of the day, Remus just stayed inside the room, expect for lunch. Despite what Will said, the food was decent. But he did just have a burger for lunch so he couldn't really judge. He did get bored, so, to entertain himself he went to go read one of the books that were scattered across the floor. He tried to read one called Oliver twist before realizing he never learnt how to read and couldn't even read the first chapter before his eyes hurt. When he went to put the book down, Alex kindly decided to share that he had been reading The Hobbit for six months and had only read the first chapter.

It was finally time to eat dinner and all the boys and girls went to the dining room. Remus fetched a plate, which was chipped at the side and walked to the counter, where he started to scoop up some vegetables and take some chicken before going to the long tables and eating his food.

The chicken was dry and was super plain while the vegetables tasted kind of slimy.

And Remus loved it.

He began stuffing the food into his mouth, chewing them quickly and then doing it again.

"You eat like you've never ate a full meal in your life,"

Remus looked up and saw Will standing across from him, smirking. Remus then saw that Alex was sitting right next to him.

"Hi," Remus said,

"Finally acknowledge my existence, have you?"

Remus smiled at Alex,

"Do any of you want this?" Will asked, looking at the plate in disgust,

"I'll have it!" Remus piped up and Will set the plate down before going somewhere else,

"You'll get bored of it soon," Alex said, but Remus shrugged his shoulders as he devoured the two plates of food.